‘Make new friends but keep the old’ are fitting words to remember with Saturday’s Area Reunion, but they also apply to a special display at the museum this weekend. The Dublin Historical Museum is exhibiting the work of local quilters June 13-14 in honoring the past and present.
Exhibit hours are 1 p.m.-5 p.m. Friday, June 13 and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, June 14. Refreshments will be served Saturday at 2 p.m.
Quilter Elaine Fields Smith said the inspiration for the show came when she was at the museum one day and a man from around Houston came in and said he had quilt blocks from his grandmother who had lived in Dublin. He said he wanted to do something with them and give back to Dublin.
The blocks feature X’s with names and dates (in 1931) that were stitched for a friendship quilt, where quilters would exchange their own ‘signed’ squares for their friends’ and make a personalized quilt of those close to them.
Smith took them to the Town and Country Quilt Guild and Peggy Delavergne volunteered to put it together while Smith finished it.
Ginia Bruno also was at an event and found squares of sailboats which the owners said came from Dublin. She couldn’t resist picking them up and piecing them together.
Delavergne, with the Dublin Rippers group, then organized more than a dozen older and contemporary quilts by locals for a colorful and unique show. The event is presented in cooperation with Dublin area quilters, the museum and the Cross Timbers Fine Arts Council.
The museum is located at 116 W. Blackjack. There is no fee to enter to museum or the special exhibit, though donations are accepted.